1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to control apparatuses and control methods, and storage media that control the discharge position of a sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among image forming apparatuses that include discharge devices having discharge functions, a “shift function” that places output paper (printed material) at the same discharge destination while changing the discharge position of the output paper is known. Using this shift function to shift the discharge position of printed material from print job to print job and stack the shifted printed material makes it possible to distinguish the printed material that corresponds to a given print job with ease (this will be referred to as “job-to-job shifting” hereinafter). Likewise, when executing a print job in which a certain number of printed copies is specified, shifting the printed material from copy to copy and stacking the printed material makes it possible to distinguish the printed material that corresponds to a given copy with ease (this will be referred to as “copy-to-copy shifting” hereinafter) (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-150204, for example).
However, according to the aforementioned past techniques, the discharge position is limited to two positions, namely a shifted position and an unshifted position, and thus printed materials discharged to the same discharge destination cannot be distinguished from each other based on the print job and based on individual copies within that print job at the same time.
Meanwhile, in the case where the state of a printing apparatus has changed during printing (a paper jam has occurred, for example), it is conceivable to use the shift function to identify where, in the discharged and stacked printed materials, it is likely that the state change began to affect the printed materials. However, in such a case, it is not possible to discern whether the shift function has been used for that purpose, or for identifying job-to-job shifting or copy-to-copy shifting. Separating printed materials using separately-prepared partition paper or the like can thus be considered, but this poses an additional problem in that paper is wasted in order to produce the partition paper.